44-year-old writer is treated like a real player on the team

I don't object to the format in principle but I didn't think this one was executed very well. Some in this thread are saying "it gives us a look at what it would be like for us to be in a college football practice." I think the only part that even remotely comes close is the paragraph about his helmet being heavy after 10 minutes.

His cynical wife, the fact that he can catch, that it was strange to go back to interviewing players afterward...all of these are details about his own life that take center stage. The actual details of the training camp are used basically as tools to further clarify his diary entries.

The reader learns little that's special or interesting about this team or about preseason football practice.

 

i stopped being a journalist a years ago. now i'm just a reader. as a reader, i want to know what's going on with the team i root for. one way to know more than the usual stuff i read every day - even if the beat writer is a pulitzer winner who writes brilliant copy day in and day out - is for a writer to do something different and creative.

this is different, even if it's done 50 times a year throughout the country. different is good. one of the many reasons newspapers are in trouble is that they do the same thing over and over again.

 

That's not true. We do something different every year -- like clockwork.

 

Seriously, regardless of it it's done well or not, the majority of readers probably do enjoy the change-of-pace. I bet lots of people in that community were talking about it. Now, whether they were talking about the added insight they got into the football team, or the 44-year old playing football ... I don't know.

 

Ask Stuart Scott if this is a good idea. He might have an interesting take.
For those who don't know, Scott got hurt badly a few years back while working out with the Jets when a ball hit him in the eye.
Scott probably thought he'd get a little athlete cred, and it ended up causing him serious physical damage.
Think about that, all you wannabe athletes, and remember why you got into this business rather than becoming a pro athlete.

 

Is that why he has a lazy eye?

 

I'm the one that said that. When I said that I wasn't saying it to defend this particular story, but more as the idea in general.

Sorry I wasn't more clear.

 

I don't think you are in the minority.

 

I did this once back in the 1980s.

The local high school had a heavyweight who was ripped everyone apart. Tough Italian kid from a huge family. Maybe 6-foot-3 and 270+ pounds. He was pinning people often and sometimes doing it in under 15 seconds. (He went on to wrestle at Bloomsburg State).

I had wrestled for part of a year in college. I was at 5-foot-7 and maybe 240 in those days, maybe less.

The amazing part with the speed and ferocity that took me from shooting on him to looking at the lights on the gym ceiling.

Got a decent story out of it. I think they used it out front. When I left the paper, the good-bye page the guys did included the closeup of my pained face.

 

Thought Dell did a very good job with the story. The bottom line for me as a reader: it was interesting.

 

WTF

it's a message board, pal

i don't know one poster from another, but it's a freaking message board ... that's what you're supposed to do ... respond to posts & have an opinion

christ, this is an interesting discussion, a good thread. honestly, i don't know how i feel about these type of stories. and all you can do is take a cheap shot at a damn good poster? that's crap

 

Not to mention, Mizzou tries hard!!